General options

-connect

Enables output of q3map2 logging to a remote host.

-game game

Enables support for games other than Quake III Arena. game is one of the following: quake3, wolf, et, etut, ef, jk2, ja, sof2, tenebrae

-fs_game modname

Enables support for game mods other than the basic game defined in your -game switch.

-fs_basepath path

Required in order for q3map to use game data of games other than Quake III Arena. path specifies the location of the game base directory.

-v

Enables verbose mode. This is generally a good idea.

-rename

Used to fix an issue with misc_model entities in SOF2. If your misc_models show up unlit and completely black, use the -rename switch.

-threads nbthreads

Specifies the number of threads to be used during compiling. q3map2 automatically detects the number of CPUs present, and sets the threadcount accordingly. The -threads switch can be used to override this behavior.

Options for the -bsp command

-custinfoparms

Enables custom surfaceparms for game mods without the need to recompile q3map2 itself. Custom surfaceparms are stored in custinfoparms.txt, in the scripts subdirectory of the game base directory.

-debuginset

Enables debugging of surface triangle insetting.

-debugportals

Draws the portals into the bsp as translucent polygons. Omit -vis and -light for the best -debugportals results.

-debugsurfaces

Colors every surface a different color (very trippy). Omit -vis and -light for the best -debugsurfaces results.

-fakemap

Creates a new .map file with a blank worldspawn entity and all the world brushes from your original .map file.

-flares

Used to generate coronas on light sources. Quake III Arena does not support flares, other more modern versions of the engine do.
This option is used in Raven games.

-flat

Forces all texture coordinates for a given surface to the pixel that best fits the average color of the assigned texture.

-fulldetail

Will cause all detail brushes to be handled as if they were structural.

-leaktest

Will abort the compile if a leak is encountered.

-meta

At one time, there was a clear definition as to what, exactly, the -meta switch did. Now, it has become the magic switch that is required for most of q3map2's advanced features. Always use the -meta and -v options with the -bsp command.

-mi maxindexcount

Sets the maximum per-surface index count to maxindexcount

-mv maxvertexcount

Sets the maximum per-surface vertex count to maxvertexcount

-nocurves

Will not compile patch meshes into the .bsp.

-nodetail

Will not compile detail brushes into the .bsp.

-nofog

Will not compile fog brushes into the .bsp.

-nohint

Will not compile hint brushes into the .bsp.

-nosubdivide

Visible surfaces will not be split. TessSize is ignored.

-notjunc

Will not fix T-Junctions. Using this option can cause sparklies and LOD cracks.

-nowater

Will not compile liquid brushes into the .bsp.

-np shadeangle

Forces all planar shaders to become nonplanar with the shadeangle specified. shadeangle can range from 1 to 179.

-onlyents

Only changes the entities in the compiled .bsp. Needs a compiled .bsp (as well as a .map) to act as a file-filter.

-patchmeta

Creates meta surfaces from patch meshes. This "bakes" a set LOD into patches in your .bsp.

-samplesize samplesize

Writes the samplesize parameter to the .srf surface file. This will affect the -light phase of the compile. A lower samplesize value produces more sharply defined lightmaps.
The default samplesize is 16; a samplesize value of 4 produces a very high quality compile, suitable to call final. A samplesize value of 1 would be total overkill, resulting in epochal compile times and immensely bloated .bsp filesize.

-skyfix

Enables fix for buggy GL_CLAMP behavior. Always use this.
Sidenote: The bug was with nVidia drivers not distinguishing between GL_CLAMP and GL_CLAMP_TO_EDGE, and Quake III Arena using the wrong one. Since Quake III Arena development was done predominantly on nVidia hardware, nobody noticed it until too late.

-snap

Enables axial bevel plane snapping to reduce clipped model plane count. Use with care.

-texrange texelcount

Limits per-surface texel count to texelcount

-verboseentities

Outputs more information about compiling entity sub-models into the .bsp file.

Options for the -vis command

-fast

Only calculates rough visibility data. Quick and dirty, not actually useful for VIS purposes.

-hint

Will merge the bsp leaves (except for hint portals) before calculating the visiblity list.

-merge

Will merge the bsp leaves before calculating the visibility list.

-nopassage

Disables the passage visiblity algorithm. Passage VIS is a bit faster and tighter than the old algorithm.

-nosort

Disables the sorting of portals by complexity. Sorting speeds up visiblity calculations.

-passageonly

Will use the passage visibility algorithm only.

-nohint

Omits hint brushes from visibility calculations.

-saveprt

Disables the automatic deletion of the .prt portal file after VIS finishes.

Options for the -light command

-areascalei scale

Scales up area (shader) lights by the prescribed factor. A scale factor of 0.25 will result in area lights that are only 25% as bright as those in a .bsp compiled with a scale factor of 1.0.

-approx tolerance

Approximates lightmaps within tolerance bytes. -approx forces simple surfaces without much shadow detail to be vertex lit, thus saving lightmaps. tolerance ranges from 0 to 255. The default is 0: no approximation.

-border

Creates a debugging border around each lightmap.

-bounce bounces

Calculating radiosity light through bounces bounces.

-bouncegrid

Allows bounced light to affect the lightgrid.

-bouncescale scale

Scales up radiosity lights by the prescribed scale factor.

-cheap

Stop calculating light on a sample after it exceeds (255, 255, 255). This may produce odd artifacts on maps with lots of saturated colored lighting. Also, do not use cheap with radiosity if you want to preserve all the emitted light.

-cheapgrid

Stop calculating light on a sample after it exceeds (255, 255, 255), but only for the lightgrid.

-compensate value

Scales back lightmap values to adjust for overbrighting when -gamma is used. For Quake III Arena, a good compensate value is 4, though some experimentation may be needed to find an aesthetic that suits your particular map.

-cpma

Enables full vertex lighting including occlusion on all surfaces, including lightmapped. Causes incorrect handling of -approx in Quake III Arena even with special shaders.

-dark

Enables darkening of lightmaps at brush/lightmap seams. Very subtle.

-debug

Enables lightmap debugging.

-debugaxis

Colors lightmaps based on their projection axis.

-debugcluster

Colors lightmaps based on the PVS-cluster the luxel falls into.

-debugorigin

Colors lightmaps based on the luxel origin relative to the raw lightmap's bounding box.

-debugunused

Colors unused luxels hot pink.

-dirty

Enables ambient occlusion or dirtmapping. Less-visible areas such as cracks and crevices will become darker. This simulates a dirty, grimy effect.

-dirtdepth depth

Use with -dirty. Sets maximum depth of occlusion checking in game units. The default depth is 128.

-dirtmode mode

Use with -dirty. Controls the mode in which the dirtmap is calculated. Possible values for mode are:

-dirtscale scale

Use with -dirty. Scales up the "darkness" of the dirtmapping effect by the prescribed factor.

-dump

Dumps radiosity lights into numbered prefabs.

-fast

Enables light envelopes for area (shader) lights. This includes radiosity lights. Results in a much quicker -light compiles, but darkens all enveloped light sources considerably. Using -fast is generally a good idea, since omiting this option results in a huge increase in compile time.

-fastbounce

Enables -fast style calculations, but only for radiosity lights.

-faster

The -faster option enables test mode light calculations. Very fast, but produces poor results. Use this option if you want a quick a test compile.

-fastgrid

Enables -fast style calculations, but only for the lightgrid.

-filter

Applies a gaussian blur to lightmaps, smoothing out shadows. Sounds good in theory, but -filter doesn't play nice with a lot of the more interesting effects... don't use it. Use -samples instead.

-gamma value

Use a prescribed gamma correction factor. The default value is 1.0. Good values are in the 1.4-2.2 range, but this may depend on the map and the game you are compiling it for.
Games that use r_overBrightBits and r_mapOverBrightBits (Quake III Arena, most notably) will need those cvars disabled unless -compensate is used accordingly.

-lightmapsize size

Limits the lightmap size.

-lomem

Decreases memory usage at the cost of increased compile time. If you are getting safe_malloc errors, or just running out of memory, try this option.

-nocollapse

Disables collapsing of identical lightmaps. This switch is required for Q3Map2 lightstyles.

-nogrid

Disables calculation of the lightgrid.

-normalmap

Colors lightmaps based on the facings of their vertex normals.

-nosurf

Disables the surface tracing of detail brushes and patch meshes for shadow casting.

-notrace

No light tracing is performed. As a result, no shadows will be cast.

-novertex

Disables the calculation of vertex lighting.

-patchshadows

Enables the casting of shadows by patch meshes.

-pointscale factor

Scales up point (entity) lights by the prescribed factor. Default is 1.0.

-samples value

Enables intelligent antialiasing of shadow edges in lightmaps. A value of 2 both looks good and compiles quickly, while a value of 3 looks great but compiles somewhat more slowly.

-scale factor

Scales up all light sources by the prescribed factor. Default is 1.0.

-shade

Enables phong shading.

-sky factor

Scales up all sun/sky light sources by the prescribed factor. Default is 1.0.

-sunonly

Computes sun/sky light only, no other light sources.

-super value

Enables arbitrarily ordered grid supersampling of lightmaps.

-thresh threshhold

Sets the recursive triangle subdivision threshhold. The threshhold range is 0.0 to 1.0.

Options for the -convert command

This command can by used to decompile a .bsp file back into a .map file. Most entities are lost, as is all texture alignment information. The converted output is written to the maps subdirectory of the game base directory.

It can also be used to convert a .bsp file from one game to an other (the other game is specified with the -game option). This feature is experimental.

The following options can be used with the -convert command:

-format format

Specify the output format for the -convert command. format is one of the following: ase, map, quake3, wolf, et, etut, ef, jk2, sof2, tenebrae